MINING SOFTWARE
tackle complex compliance requirements and make confident business decisions .
“ Our solutions will continue to evolve to help companies capture , monitor and report on their data in line with regulatory , social and global influences ,” Atkins said .
In South Africa , for instance , there is great onus placed on mining companies to outline their support of the local economy and find solutions for effective management of their social licence to operate .
The company ’ s recent acquisition of MTS and its Insite software is providing these companies with a “ complete view ” of their social compliance plans , according to Atkins . “ A laser focus on analysing the direct impact of your entire mining operation identifies your risk and helps you make decisions with confidence . But the value extends beyond reporting ; Insite becomes a management tool for companies to continuously improve their social performance impact .”
Atkins expects to see demand for such solutions to grow – not just in South Africa , but globally – as ESG reporting becomes more stringent .
As such , the company is exploring the opportunity to develop a global solution based on Insite , in keeping with its international focus on ESG issues .
ThreeDify ready to leverage GeoMine ’ s new capabilities
ThreeDify looks to its GeoMine platform for its key software market differentiators .
GeoMine consists of 18 independently licensed modules , ranging from 3D geological and block modelling , 2D gridded seam modelling ( for stratified deposits ), infill drilling plan optimisation , pit optimisation , stope and cave optimisation , fleet budgeting and haulage analysis , mine planning , mine design , mine scheduling for both open-pit and underground mines , as well as total mine optimisation through cutoff grade optimisation and open-pit to underground transition optimisation .
The platform continues to evolve , as Nancy Liu , VP of Operations at ThreeDify , highlighted with a few recent updates looking to solve some of the critical issues mining companies are facing .
“ Our recent advance in block modelling in ThreeDify GeoMine v6.5 now allows a block model universe with an astronomical size never heard before ,” she told IM . “ We have increased the block model universe to 2^40 x 2^40 x 2^40 , from 2^19 x 2^19 x 2^19 in the previous version . Such an astronomical size greatly simplifies model positioning and allows satellite depositsto be easily modelled and consolidated in a single GeoMine session .”
The latest version of GeoMine adds DigiSIM , an integrated simulation and decarbonisation study tool .
Liu expanded on this : “ Until now , mine haulage simulation for decarbonisation study has always been an external process that is disjointed from the traditional mine planning and
ThreeDify ’ s recent advance in block modelling in GeoMine v6.5 has increased the block model universe to 2^40 x 2^40 x 2^40 , from 2^19 x 2^19 x 2^19
modelling processes . GeoMine v6.5 changed that with modelling , mine planning and simulation now integrated into a single package to natively support the continuous improvement loop that is part of the modern mine planning process .” Such integration allows companies to easily quantify the environmental / emission variables and their impact on mine planning within such studies , according to Liu .
Like others consulted in this article , ThreeDify sees fully automated decision making playing a major part in modern-day mine planning , with Liu saying ThreeDify is at the forefront of this wave . “ Our GeoMine-DigiSIM module can already directly ingress the planning input / output data from other modules in GeoMine and egress its output back to the optimisation and scheduling modules within GeoMine ,” she said . “ The basic process is already there , although the automation part has some way to go . We anticipate that AI and machine learning will be the enabling technology . IM
International Mining | FEBRUARY 2024